Elfling
by Ellie In ElfPajamas
Summary: Chapter 2 Up! An Elven baby ends up in the real world. A clueless tech guy programming computer games ends up having to take care of it. The mystery deepens as the baby grows.
1. A Foundling

Elfling  
  
Written, Spell Checked, and goofed up by Caladiel Meril Williams.  
  
Summary: An Elven child is found in the real world by a young single guy  
  
with a career. Since he can't find the child's parents, he ends up having  
  
to raise it himself. Guess how much his girlfriend likes that.  
  
Rating: PG for typical new daddy angst. (puke, diaper changes, etc.)  
  
Disclaimer: Any similarity or likeness to Tolkien's characters is purely  
  
accidental, and in some cases a cryin' shame. I do not own 'Jak & Daxter'  
  
or Microsoft, but I know the next Bill Gates, He's a fifteen year old  
  
computer whiz named Samuel Lucidi. He's fixed my computer many times.  
  
Author's Notes and Misc Ramblings:  
  
Erestor, If you read this story and you don't like it, I'm SSSSSOOOOO  
  
sorry. Kinda got inspired on New Year's Eve while over at my friend's  
  
house. The baby's father is not Legolas. This is sorta preLotR, maybe  
  
even preFirst-War-Of-The-Ring. And the baby is not Legolas either.  
  
Chapter One: A Foundling.  
  
Mark Jeffersson heard a weird sound in his kitchen. Thinking it was the  
  
coffee pot boiling over, he ran into the kitchen. There was a pile of  
  
rags on the floor, he got closer and realized they weren't rags, but a  
  
finely woven irridescent satin cloak. He touched it and jumped back in  
  
alarm when it moved. He frowned and picked it up. He heard something coo,  
  
and decided he'd better figure out what was in that bundle right now. He  
  
put the bundle down on the counter and unwrapped it.  
  
An amazingly beautiful baby with tanzanite blue eyes looked up at him,  
  
its head wreathed in soft golden hair. Mark was shocked. He lifted the  
  
baby and got a better look at it. He got a funny feeling in the pit of  
  
his stomach when he saw the baby's ears. The baby's ears came to a  
  
graceful point. That was certainly odd. Mark wondered how a baby had  
  
ended up in his kitchen. He looked at his watch.  
  
He had to be at work in an hour, but he had to do something with this kid  
  
first. He got a bright idea and called his girlfriend, Leslie.  
  
"Hey Leslie, someone left a baby in my kitchen, I was wondering if you  
  
could watch it till I get back from work?"  
  
"Mark, are you crazy? I have, like, a job interview this afternoon. Watch  
  
your own pet." Leslie said.  
  
"It's not a pet, it's a baby, and it's not mine. I don't know how to take  
  
care of it." Mark said flatly.  
  
"I'm not watching it Mark. Find a daycare or give it to the police."  
  
Leslie said.  
  
Mark sighed, looking at the baby's innocent face. The baby reached for  
  
his face.  
  
On the other side of the line, Leslie was filing her nails with her other  
  
boyfriend sitting next to her.  
  
Leslie looked like a Barbie doll, with bleached blonde hair, blue  
  
contacts, and ridiculously long fingernails. She was only Mark's  
  
girlfriend because of the advantages it gave her. He was a computer  
  
technician for Microsoft. He was way up there too, so he had a pretty  
  
good salary.  
  
"Fine, I'll talk to you later Leslie." Mark said, hanging up the phone.  
  
The baby had Mark's finger in his mouth and was gumming it.  
  
"I take it I'll have to bring you to work with me. But if you erase one  
  
computer program, that's it, I'll have to find someone else to take you."  
  
he sighed.  
  
He took the little one to work, and made sure to save his work often, but  
  
the baby kept its hands to itself. Occaisionally it reached up, trying to  
  
get a hold of Mark's jet black hair, but never touched the computer  
  
keyboard. It only wanted Mark, and fell asleep with a fist full of Mark's  
  
shirt.  
  
Naturally, Mark wondered if the baby was male or female, because he  
  
really didn't want to deal with a female infant.  
  
Presently, an unpleasant smell alerted him to the fact that the baby  
  
needed a diaper change, and badly. He had to leave the office to get  
  
diapers. That was a public embarassment. In the process, he found that  
  
the baby was indeed a male.  
  
"I guess you need a name, huh?" Mark said, giving the baby a bottle of  
  
infant formula.  
  
"What do you think of Adrian?"  
  
The baby made a hideous face.  
  
"Hmm, how about Jonathan?" Mark asked.  
  
The baby gurgled his agreement.  
  
"Jonathan. A gift." Mark mused, going back to his office with the  
  
sleeping baby in his arms.  
  
The little one slept for hours, his head against Mark's chest. Mark took  
  
a strange fascination with the way those little ears twitched in response  
  
to sounds. Mark got a lot done, programming a new adventure game that was  
  
a lot like 'Jak and Daxter'. Mark was in charge of programming the main  
  
character. The sketches were odd looking, and he didn't like any of them.  
  
He got a great idea. When he got home he would ask one of his friends, an  
  
artist, to do an Elf sketch for him, and try that out in addition to the  
  
other artists' impressions. He'd programmed rough demos of three of the  
  
sketches by the end of the day. He particularly disliked the one with  
  
ears long enough to tie in a bow, but the one that looked like an ox  
  
wasn't exactly great either.  
  
He got home, put the baby on his bed with pillows to keep him from  
  
rolling off the edges, and called Alissa, his artistic friend. She'd done  
  
game art for him before. She had curly red hair, and looked very Irish.  
  
She came over. The baby was asleep, so Mark figured he could leave him.  
  
He and Alissa worked on the concept art for nearly two hours, but it just  
  
wasn't coming out the way he wanted it to. The baby woke up and Mark went  
  
to get him. When he came back and started to give the baby a bottle,  
  
Alissa blanched.  
  
"Where'd you get that?" she asked sharply.  
  
"I found him in my kitchen this morning." Mark said. "Why? Do you know  
  
where I can find his parents?"  
  
"No Mark, I can't help you there, but I had a dream about him last night.  
  
I think his parents are dead." Alissa said.  
  
She dug through her sketchbook.  
  
"I think this is what you want, this is a sketch of his father from the  
  
dream." she said, handing him a sketch of a masculine looking Elf in  
  
medival clothing with a longbow and a curved sword. He had blond hair  
  
that reached his shoulderblades, and piercing blue eyes set in a noble  
  
looking face.  
  
Mark's eyes went wide.  
  
"Alissa, that's exactly what I wanted, now I need a storyline. If you can  
  
cook one up by morning, I'll submit it to the board on Friday to see if  
  
they'll accept it for the new game." Mark said."I've got a hunch on this.  
  
This could be your big break."  
  
Alissa nodded and started to gather up her things.  
  
"Oh, Alissa, he'd need a sidekick, and if you can dream one up, that  
  
would be cool." Mark said. "But you don't have to. Someone else could if  
  
you don't want to."  
  
Alissa smiled.  
  
"I'll have a storyline and a sidekick for you by morning." she said. "And  
  
some more sketches to make your animations easier."  
  
Mark didn't sleep much that night. Jonathan had to be fed pretty  
  
frequently, and Mark was really worried about Alissa's dream being true.  
  
By morning Alissa had an in depth storyline, more sketches of the hero,  
  
sketches of a sidekick, sketches of the villian and the villian's  
  
minions, and some of the creatures for the game.  
  
Needless to say, Mark was impressed. She must have been up all night. The  
  
sidekick intrigued Mark. He looked like the hero, but with dark hair and  
  
brown eyes and slightly smaller. The minions were ugly, not quite LotR  
  
Orcs, but almost as ugly. The villian himself was fascinating. He was  
  
quite human in form, with a prideful and evil air about him. He didn't  
  
look ugly at all, but was obviously evil in disguise. He contrasted  
  
beautifully with the hero, and Mark was pretty sure that these would be  
  
the final skins for the characters.  
  
The storyline was that the hero's child has been kidnapped, his wife  
  
killed. He and his brother set off to rescue the son, and along the way  
  
have many tests to pass, many roads to choose from, and many dangers to  
  
face. In the end the hero and his brother save the hero's son, but the  
  
brother dies.  
  
Alissa's storyline had given Mark enough material to work into  
  
twenty-five to thirty levels. It was way too much to put into ten. He  
  
spent most of the day creating the characters and skinning them. The  
  
other characters he'd done didn't even compare.  
  
His job finished and the characters ready to be screened, he burned them  
  
onto a CD, and shut down his computer, then took the CD home with him. 


	2. Screening Characters

Elfling  
  
Written, Spell Checked, and goofed up by Caladiel Meril Williams.  
  
Summary: An Elven child is found in the real world by a young single guy with a career. Since he can't find the child's parents, he ends up having to raise it himself. Guess how much his girlfriend likes that.  
  
Disclaimer: Any similarity or likeness to Tolkien's characters is purely accidental, and in some cases a cryin' shame. I do not own 'Jak & Daxter' or Microsoft, but I know the next Bill Gates, He's a fifteen year old computer whiz named Samuel Lucidi. He's fixed my computer many times.  
  
Confusing Computer Lingo Guide:  
  
"Skinning" involves rendering the 3-D wireframe on the computer with clothes and a body, or "skin".  
  
"Skinner" is a person who makes the skins.  
  
"Screening Characters" is just showing them to the other techies and the guy in charge to see what they think.  
  
Reveiwer Thanks:  
  
Invader VIZ: Glad you like!  
  
Erestor: Hello again, welcome to the Nerd Control Center, Main Desk!!! I'm glad you liked the twitchy ears, I kinda figure that Elves have rather mobile ears, and that's why their hearing is so good. I'm also overjoyed that you think this is "original" and "promising", I wish I heard that kinda thing more often. I hope it continues to be enjoyable.  
  
JuliaMaxwell1: Just how dumb would you think you were? It wouldn't let you post a second reveiw for the same chapter, so you're saved. Thanks for the compliment on the plot. This isn't entirely my story, I had help. I think if you'd take just a little more time to work out your plots they'd be just as good, just funnier. =D  
  
CSI-Can't Stand Idiots: love your penname, it's brilliant. I plan on continuing. The updates won't be too fast, because I'm not a techie and I have to pick people's brains to get the information I need.  
  
Chapter Two: Character Screening.  
  
Mark was nervous. Alissa had Jonathan, so he didn't have to worry about that, but he was worried that Alissa's skins would be rejected. He liked them, and the storyline was easy to work with, so he hoped they would be the winners. He much prefered to do epic-style games, and this was right up his alley.  
  
Mark uploaded the characters to show them on the screen and waited for the commitee to show up. The "big man" himself, Gill Bates, walked in. Mark felt whatever confidence he'd had drain right out of him. Various other bigshots walked in after Mr.Bates, but Mark's eyes never left him. He had a feeling that this screening was more important than it had been made out to be. He felt for the other CD, the one with Alissa's characters. He would wait until the time was right to unveil them.  
  
"Okay Jefferson, everyone's here, so take it away." Mark's department boss said.  
  
Mark started the animations. The first one was Long-ears.  
  
"As you can see, this character is difficult to consistently animate due to his lengthly ears. He looks more like an offshoot of another game than an entirely new character."  
  
Everyone agreed with him. Ox-head popped up.  
  
"This character looks like the Minotaur, and would be alright for an evil villain, but I don't think he's suited to be the hero."  
  
Nods of assent all around. Fluffy-kitty popped up. Everyone laughed.  
  
"Much more suited to a preschool game."  
  
Character after character followed, not one met with approval.  
  
Everyone looked to Mark, wondering why he hadn't turned on the light after running out of characters. He looked beseechingly to his boss.  
  
"If you'll allow me sir, I would like to screen one more character group. They all would go together in one game, and they come with a storyline." Mark said humbly.  
  
"Well, I should like to see them." Mr.Bates said.  
  
Mark popped the disc in and uploaded Alissa's creations. The characters seemed to take on a life of their own as they moved across the screen in the opening sequence of the game. Even so roughly done, the opening sequence looked good, Mark thought, pleased with himself for taking the time to do it.  
  
Everyone in the room sat on the edge of their seats, riveted to the screen. Many held their breath.  
  
"Arthvilui was a happy family man. In a raid, his wife was killed, his only child taken. Now, he will stop at nothing to get his son back." scrolled across the screen. When the screen went black, the room was silent.  
  
"Who did these characters?"  
  
"A friend of mine, sir, she's an artist."  
  
"Who did the storyline?"  
  
"She did."  
  
"She's hired! What's her name?"  
  
"Alissa Parker, sir. She's my neighbor."  
  
Another tech raised a hand to ask a question.  
  
"Okay, and that baby you brought in yesterday, whose was that?"  
  
The room was dead silent as Mark tried to think of a way to explain that.  
  
"I don't know whose baby it is. I found it, so I guess it's more or less mine now."  
  
Todd looked shocked.  
  
"Is that baby somehow connected to the game? It was a rather odd looking child."  
  
"I don't know yet, Todd. It looks like an Elf, and Alissa had weird dreams involving it before I found it."  
  
Many in the room looked doubtful. Jason, the gametester, stood up.  
  
"I believe you, Mark. And anyway, I'm really looking forward to trying that game when you get a prototype made."  
  
Mark got the go-ahead for the game. He started work on it that evening, dividing up the job for the different animators and skinners. Alissa had Jonathan in her lap and was doing color sketches of the brother and the villain from different angles to make the job easier for the rest of the department. The villain was just soo evil that Mark hated to look at him. He started doing level breakdowns and plans.  
  
"Alissa, would you mind if we didn't kill the brother and we made this a two player game?" Mark asked.  
  
"I don't really care. I imagine the brother would much prefer to live anyway." Alissa said carelessly, looking at Jonathan.  
  
The baby looked at her with big blue eyes. He was so innocent.  
  
Alissa smiled and kissed the Elfling's cheek. Jonathan put his soft little baby hands on her face, cooing.  
  
Mark stared at the two, staring without seeing. It seemed to his mind's eye that Alissa morphed into an Elf maiden. The villain on Alissa's sketch pad seemed to move. Mark blinked and shook his head. When he opened his eyes again, the illusion was gone. He looked at his watch.  
  
"Oh, look, it's really late, you should go home, Alissa. I'll put Jonathan to bed." he said, taking the baby.  
  
"I'll take him home with me if you want." Alissa said.  
  
"Umm, no, I can handle it." Mark said.  
  
Alissa wondered what his problem was, but she went home just as he asked. Mark put the sketch pad in a locked drawer. He was taking no chances. He put Jonathan to bed, and after reading a little bit, hit the hay as well.  
  
Mark woke with a start in the middle of the night, he'd heard a voice. Jonathan looked at him, as though he knew whose voice the man had heard. Mark reached down for the Elfling and held it to his chest, guessing that he'd been hearing things. He went downstairs to the kitchen to get the baby a bottle. He walked into the darkened room with the Elfling cooing to him as he talked to it. A cold blue-white glow cast itself over the kitchen island. Mark looked up and his throat constricted in fear.  
  
There, on the other side of the island, stood a she-Elf. She looked so cold, like ice, and looked to the baby with a mournful expression. Mark got the distinct impression that this Elf woman was not alive. She cast him a beseeching glance.  
  
"Take good care of him." Mark heard, though the woman's mouth did not move at all.  
  
The she-Elf melted into the air and was gone, little Jonathan reaching out to the spot where she had stood. When she vanished he started to cry. Mark shivered.  
  
"Was that your mother?"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Short one, I know, but I wanted to keep you all hanging. (evil grin) 


End file.
